the senate bill calls for deficit reduction through increasing taxes and spending cuts and, of course, the house bill calls for steep cuts in balancing the budget within ten years. of course, some revisions to medicare as well. a lot of differences and we have another deadline coming up. the debt ceiling will have to be revisited this summer, alex. >> looking forward to that. >> reporter: yeah, we all are. >> thank you very much, kristen welker. >>> joining me right now, andy sullivan and ann palmer. ann, i'll begin with you. the president is back from the middle east. the reviews are out there. how are you getting the word in terms of how he was perceived? >> i think one of the key things you can look at is what the israeli press put out in the days following his first steps and throughout the entire visit and it was a resounding applause. he got very good praise from them. obviously from what he was trying to do was take that frosty relationship with benjamin netanyahu and try to piece it back together. he did that. it was exactly what he needed to do. there wasn't a lot of meat on